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Charles
Anthony Fleschner, Biological Control: Riverside
1911-1993 Charley
was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Little Rock High
School. In 1928, he drove to southern California with an uncle and cousin
"to look the place over." Charley, sans high school diploma, decided to
stay and began working for Stationers Corp., Los Angeles. In 1930 he
married Antoinette (Annette) Marsman, who earlier had given him a book on
dragonflies because of his keen interest in nature study and insects in
particular. Their two sons, Anthony and Michael, were born in 1939 and
1943, respectively. Through
self-education, and the encouragement of his wife, Charley successfully
passed entrance examinations and began a college curriculum at Glendale
Junior College in 1938, at age 27. There he was befriended and strongly
influenced by a well-known entomologist, W. Dwight Pierce, whose
enthusiasm for the subject and genuine interest in budding entomologists
were widely recognized. Charley attended UCLA in 1939 and 1940. He later
enrolled at UCB, where he was awarded the B.S. degree in 1943. Charley
worked in a shipyard in the San Francisco Bay and Oakland area for a
period during World War II. He returned to southern California in 1946 and
began his dissertation research at the Citrus Experiment Station with
Professors H. S. Smith and S. E. Flanders, Department of Biological
Control. Charley was awarded the Ph.D. degree at UCB in February
1948. Fleschner's
career at the Riverside campus spanned twenty-four years, 1948 to 1972,
during which he authored or co-authored over eighty papers. His early
research dealt mainly with population ecology of plant-feeding mites. He
was a firm believer in making detailed hands-on observations of pest mites
and their natural enemies in the field, especially in the absence of
pesticides. Perhaps his major creative contribution to the
population-ecology literature is reflected in the title, "The Role of
Edaphic [soil and water] Factors in the Population Ecology of
Panonychus citri [citrus red mite]." His research also demonstrated
the detrimental effect of dust on the activity of beneficial insects and
mites on the leaves and fruits of citrus and avocados. He and Annette made
several foreign collecting trips to search for new natural enemies. This
use of exotic predators was a pioneering approach to the control of spider
mites. His enthusiastically-given invited lectures at universities in
Mexico, India, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Argentina, Peru, and elsewhere
brought many student applicants to UC to study biological control of pest
organisms. His fluency in Spanish greatly added to the success of trips to
Spanish-speaking countries. Charley's
interest in the use of natural enemies to control pests was broad. During
the early years of his research career he worked mainly with primary pests
such as citrus red mite and avocado brown mite and mite pests of
greenhouse culture. A survey in 1965 of the Anthocoridae of the Pacific
Slope greatly advanced and clarified the status of these important
predaceous insects. He was among the first to document the presence in
southern California of the spider mite, Tetranychus evansi, a
highly destructive pest of solanaceous plants. Other projects he engaged
in included the effect of air pollutants and their residues on
entomophagous insects and mites, and the use of insects to control
puncture vine on the mainland and prickly pear cactus on Santa Cruz
Island. While
chair of the Universitywide Department of Biological Control from 1959 to
1964, Fleschner promoter the concept and application of the biological
control method through articles and lectures to outside audiences as well
as continuing to conduct formal courses at UCR. Two films he directed are
still used at UC and other teaching institutions. Among his
major administrative contributions was the constructing of favorable
relationships with the federal and state departments of agriculture and
the agricultural industry. In
recognition of his scientific contributions on the population ecology of
plant-feeding mites, he was invited in 1963 to chair the section of
Agricultural and Stored Products Acarology of The First International
Congress of Acarology, held at Fort Collins,
Colorado. Fleschner
was a member of the California Forest Pest Control Action Council and of
the Southern California Forest Pest Committee. In 1965 he was appointed to
the USDA Plant Science and Entomology Research Advisory Committee by
Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freemen. It was his responsibility as a
committee member to review the research program of the United States
Department of Agriculture in his field of expertise. Following
Charley's retirement in 1972, the Fleschners spent time at their ranch
near Fossil, Oregon, and in Davis, California, where their
daughter-in-law, Patti, was completing an M.A. degree at UCD. After the
death of his wife in 1974, Fleschner moved to Trinidad, California, in
1977 to be near their two sons and their families. In 1992 he married
Adrian Love of Trinidad. Charley
subsequently entered wholeheartedly into community service through the
Trinidad Lions Club (he was a charter member) and the Trinidad Museum
Society. Leading nature walks that were well attended by youngsters and
their parents was a source of great satisfaction. Being an entomologist,
he built a fine, locally representative collection of insects for the
museum. His devotion to the museum and the community were deeply
appreciated; the museum now bears his name. Charles
Fleschner is survived by his wife, Adrian; by his sons, Charles, of
Fortuna, and David, of Trinidad, and four grandchildren. A brother, Lewis,
resides in Arkansas. Albert M.
Boyce |